Despite encouraging signs in 2010, there were many who just believed that QR Codes, or mobile bar codes, were purely an interim technology waiting for the newer, funkier technologies such as NFC and augmented reality to get their act together and take over. But, as is the way, this hasn’t happened yet. Sure, things have progressed, but they still do not yet offer compelling reasons for mobile manufacturers/networks to make the investment to universally include them. This is due to, amongst other things, some interoperability issues between Wikitude and Layar technology, the debate over user interfaces and the pros and cons of real-time versus cached data.

So what has happened?

Not surprisingly, purely due to the number of handsets sold, Android has become the pre-eminent OS when it comes to QR code usage (youscan.me)

What will be interesting to watch — given Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola and its investment in the Android OS — is the potential development of technologies that will combine scanning with geolocation and local search. The mind boggles as to the possibility of even more targeted advertising and response driven communication that will, ultimately, become mass market and of the greater good.

The US has finally woken up to the potential.

Finally! The land of “cellular” has realised the potential of QR and mobile barcodes. The US has witnessed phenomenal growth. If we look at Q1/2011 vs Q4/2010 and also at overall global growth, we can see that the top cities in the world for scanning usage are: Tokyo (in fact several wards of Tokyo on their own feature in the top 10), New York, Houston, London, Chicago, LA, Seattle and Moscow, showing the importance of the US in this arena. (i-nigma.com)

1. United States (181.1%)

2. UK (166.5%)

3. Netherlands (146.3%)

4. Spain (94.4%)

5. Canada (94.0%)

The growth of the “coupon” through sites like Groupon has helped push this. If we look at why US Consumers are using this technology we can see the importance of the “deal”. In other areas, we are now seeing QR codes being used to amuse, not just for transactions or to provide information.

The recent campaign in the US for Victoria’s Secret is pure, utter genius and a superb demonstration of how to take technology to a whole new territory.

The technology as the joke is, as Mastercard® would say, priceless.

The US Postal Service ran a campaign earlier this year encouraging users to utilise QR codes. The QR code promotion offered commercial mailers an upfront 3% discount on the prices for First-Class Mail and Standard Mail letters, which included a QR code inside or on the mail.

According to their data nearly one third of all Standard Mail in the past two months contained a QR code (multichannelmerchant.com)

So what is next?

From ‘umble origins it has grown. QR codes are easy to integrate into products and relatively inexpensive to print and produce, especially when compared to NFC systems that need a whole heap of associated tech to work. QR codes have also been around for a while now, so consumers (well, over 30% of smartphone users mghus.com) know what to do with them.

Marketers are waking up to the fact that QR codes are a very easy way of disseminating much more information than can be encapsulated in a simple print ad, and Smartphone penetration is proliferating at a phenomenal rate, helping to fuel this growth.

Top 10 users of mobile barcodes during Q1/2011 (excluding Japan)

(1) 1. United States

(2) 2. Italy

(3) 3. Germany

(7) 4. United Kingdom

(8) 5. Netherlands

(6) 6. Canada

(5) 7. France

(4) 8. Hong Kong

(17) 9. Spain

(15) 10. Switzerland

() – Position in Q4/2010

(youscan.me)

And things just got smarter

Sites and apps that will generate QR codes with in-built Google Analytics are springing up left, right and centre. How much longer will it be before they will incorporate Omniture or Hitwise coding? It is only a matter of time. Suddenly these seemingly clunky boxes or circles of squiggles become a meaningful, trackable marketing tool.

The wrap

IMHO QR codes are not going to just fade quietly into the ether. More and more ways will be found to use them to link the real to the virtual, to generate and analyse response, to track consumer behaviour, to disseminate more product information, to tease and to tempt.

And all this is currently achievable with technology available in your smartphone today.

What might the future bring? If I could predict that I would be a rich man but I can only see a future where the lines between real and virtual are increasingly blurred.

If I wait another 9 12 months before another update I hope I’m still writing about the advancements in QR code technology and usage. But knowing how quickly tech moves, I doubt it.

Microsoft’s ebullient Steve Balmer literally charging back into the fray with MS phone 7 which, I’m kinda shocked to say, seems to be getting rave reviews. Android showing its mettle with some decent looking kit like the new Motorola CLIQ XT and the inevitably slick UI we’ve come to expect. In addition, Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote on Google Goggles and the emerging augmented realityspace was great. Apple, in true brand fashion, deigning not to attend but still able to cause a monumental buzz with the runaway success of the AppStore. And Nokia? Despite the much-hyped but largely panned collaboration with Intel on a new mobile OS called MeeGo, Nokia unveiled no new devices at all which is a first at MWC. Rather they chose to extol (or is that excuse?) the virtues of their Ovi store which seems unable to slow the galloping success of AppStore. This piece of YouTube brilliance highlights the common perception.

As the mobile space seems, momentarily, to be fixated on applications, MWC was awash with hundreds of companies trying to muscle in. The recurring theme? A concern surrounding the lack of standards in the application space and the complexity that is causing throughout the mobile ecosystem. Manufacturers, understandably, seem slow to adopt a common standard and all are trying to desperately nurture a developer network to mimic Apple. However, operators and network providers are trying to lasso developer communities together (check out the Wholesale Application Community to see just how big that groundswell could become) in a direct assault on Apple.

So despite the obvious allure of Barcelona at any time of the year, Mobile World Congress 2010 appears to have been a real barnstormer. Two predictions. MWC 2011 will definitely be even more engaging as the mobile space continues to evolve so frenetically. London weather in February 2011 will be just as shyte. I’ve begun begging for my ticket already.

As part of the feedback process on the last event, we asked what people thought of the day, the content and speakers. We also asked what changes they’d like to see in the format of the event in the future and what topics they’d like to see covered.

Perhaps predictably, it was the day’s agenda and calibre of the speaker line-up that attracted most people to the first event. Not to mention it was free to our invitees. Of course our speakers scored very highly, but coming away from the day almost all commented on how much they’d valued the opportunity to network. I’m sure they found it cathartic to share some pain and understand that others out there were trying to overcome the same hurdles.

Three key pieces of feedback came through, which we’ve tried to listen to in putting together the agenda for the forthcoming summit:

1. People want more practical content and less of the theoretical. There’s an appetite for stories of bloodied knuckles, as well as a hunger for real learnings from people who’ve been there and done it. We were very conscious not to make last year’s event a beauty parade of vendors and ensure it was client-side marketers telling their stories. This time round we’re trying to encourage our speakers to tell their success stories, and what mistakes they’d avoid the second time round. As an example, Shawn Burns from SAP is coming along to tell the story of how he and other marketers transformed sap.com from a largely brochureware site to a ‘demand generation machine’. Good stuff.

2. Attendees wanted more opportunity to network and learn from their peers. We had some great table conversations at lunchtime last time round, and we tried to allow generous breaks. For the most part people resisted the lure of their BlackBerries, made conversation and benefited immensely. This time round we’ve gone a bit further and we’ve made the afternoon sessions entirely interactive. Attendees will have the opportunity to attend three out of four workshops on social media, accelerating sales, using webcasting and online video, and measuring and optimising campaigns. We’re going to have people capturing learnings from one group to another so that through the course of the afternoon we generate a body of knowledge which can then be shared with all attendees afterwards.

3. In terms of the content, there was a lot of call for tips on making the most of a credit-crunched budget, using social media and proving a return on marketing activity. Our first speaker of the day, Jim Cassidy, is an ex IBM marketer now at European company StepStone. In his previous life with a budget of millions, his greatest challenge used to be how to spend marketing budget fast enough. He’s now in a position where every penny (cent) has to be accounted for. Jim will talk about what he’s prioritising, how he’s making a case for spend with the board, and how he’s making his marketing assets sweat. We’ve also got a great panel line up, led by Cisco’s Amanda Jobbins. They’re going to give their take on some of these topics.

So hopefully that gives you something of a taster for what’s to come on the 30th April. If you need any more encouragement, the venue we’ve chosen this time is simply stunning — a private member’s club at the top of Centrepoint.

About time you registered I think: www.demandgenerationsummit.com

Remember, we’re only accepting registrations from client-side marketers from the B2B services, technology and telecoms sectors. No offence intended to others, but demand for places is extremely high.

Hopefully see you there.

P.S. If you’re of the twittering kind, you can get regular updates by following us at www.twitter.com/demandgentweet or subscribing to the RSS feed

At the risk of being burned at the stake, I believe not. There is nothing in the iPhone launch announcement to suggest it will create market disruption. Sure, the iPhone looks beautiful. The user experience looks promising (unless you like texting one handed). And yes, it can do clever things. But nothing disruptive. Nothing to unsettle the status quo in the way iTunes unsettled the music industry. Nothing so different that you can’t wait for the end of your contract before binning your existing handset. And nothing to warrant the enormous pricing burden the iPhone will have to carry.

Apple are facing stiff competition this time. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson may not all have the cache of Apple, but they are much beefier brands than the rag bag of competitors Apple whitewashed in the MP3 market. However, my heretic view is not founded on the relevant strengths of phone brands (even though we do work for Nokia). It is based on the dynamics of the industry. Among Nokia’s many reasons for success are their relationships with network operators around the world, their supreme global logistics operation, and their sheer economy of scale. Apple have none of these. Someone put me right here, but Apple are not exactly renowned for their partnership skills either? I can only imagine the scene when they realise the network operators have a compulsion for instructing manufacturers which features must go into their next product.

Of course, many of the faithful will queue overnight to satisfy their addiction to own all things shiny and Apple. At the launch, Mr Jobs proudly reminded devotees that there are 100 million iPods in the world. He omitted to mention the two billion Nokia mobile devices in the world, with the Finns adding to them at a rate of 350 million in 2006 alone.

So if you guys in Cupertino aren’t realistically expecting to take on Helsinki, what are you expecting to do? Is this a defensive manoeuvre against MP3 players in phones? If it is, you are one tardy bunch of Californians. Or is it the realisation that much of your future business will be wrapped up in mobile computing…of which voice communication is a critical component? Or are you hiding an industry disruption up your sleeve which will yet turn the entire market upside down?

I guess whatever your answer, it will be a reflection of your faith.

WiMAX is often talked about as the holy grail of last mile / ubiquitous connectivity. The ability to have a robust broadband connection wherever, whenever. We’ve already covered Singapore’s plans to offer full WiMAX coverage to every single person and business by 2015. It’s an ambitious plan and has some way to go (especially if like me, users can’t get speeds over 20 kB/sec when downloading from their site).

What I like about the Singapore approach is that there is a clear vision behind it. A sense of the greater good such a programme can achieve. Pipex’s, by comparison, seems to be all about technical feasibility and commercial viability. These are both good things, of course, and to be expected from a commercial organisation. They’re just not that exciting (and the prospect of the service being promoted eventually by David Hasslehoff frankly makes me a little nauseous).

But, you have to hope the programme is a success and spurs other providers to launch similar plans. And the prospect of high-quality ubiquitous connectivity is exciting. Of course, if you’ve paid out millions on a 3G license, it might be a little less so.

Sources: Telecoms.com (registration required) and The Register

Now, all they need is a subscription music service and some WiFi-enabled players.

Source: news.com